Fire hope Blanco gets healthy for playoffs
Midfielder battling hamstring strain heading into postseason play
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Blanco played 26 minutes Thursday, and provided the corner kick that turned into an own goal that gave the Fire a 1-0 win against Chivas USA and propelled the team into the postseason.
The Fire are being cautious with Blanco, who has played with a hamstring strain since a Sept. 20 game against Columbus.
"He still feels his hamstring," Fire coach Denis Hamlett said after the Chivas victory. "He played Saturday (Oct. 10) with the Mexican team in El Salvador, played 78 minutes. Then he went to Trinidad, and they weren't supposed to play him (Oct. 14), but he still plays 30 minutes. He flew all day Thursday to get back to Chicago, said he still felt the hamstring, so we used him late in the game against New England (last Saturday, 22 minutes).
"(Thursday) was important, and we made the decision to bring him on as a sub," Hamlett continued. "He felt he could go out there and help us."
Having clinched a playoff spot on Thursday, while the rest of the league plays this weekend to determine final playoff participants, the Fire have a chance to relax and prepare for the postseason. Obviously, if their first playoff game comes Saturday, Oct. 31 rather than Thursday, Oct. 29, the Fire would get two extra days to get bodies healthy.
Besides Blanco, the Fire have defender Wilman Conde battling both illness and a hip contusion, and defender Gonzalo Segares is finally getting back into training after suffering a knee sprain.
"We want to be cautious with them," Hamlett said.
As the second seed in the Eastern Conference, the Fire have home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs, which means they will play their first game on the road, then host the second game of the two-game aggregate goal series.
Kent McDill is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
